If you’re waiting – like me – for your Nihon sponsored counter sheets to arrive, here’s something related to the Nihon Invasion but without the custom counters. Back in the day, Keith Johnson’s created a scenario called “The Nihon Invasion of San Francisco” featuring an amazing USGS map. [Remember – this was before Google Maps!] I printed a colour copy on an 11×17 sheet and had it laminated, wrote this scenario, then had great fun pushing little paper chits around.

I wonder how easy it would be to get a large-format version printed today…

It is 2101 and the Combine has fallen. The Nihon Empire avidly monitored its collapse, and now sets its eyes on invasion. Spies and agents loyal to Nihon have infiltrated positions along the west coast, reporting military intelligence back to the Heavenly Empire.

But there is a problem.

A Nihon defector, a high-ranking spy, has made contact with San Franciscan authorities. He possesses detailed knowledge of the planned invasion; information which would jeopardize the entire North American operation if revealed. It is a desperate situation for Nihon; drastic measures are called for. It is time to contact the sleeper agent…

…An old program hidden deep within a computer AI has been activated; a hidden voice issues new commands to an OGRE. Turning south from its previously assigned mission, it acquires a new target. Its goal is to reach the turncoat before he reveals Nihon’s invasion plans.

The OGRE rules require a defender to batter an OGRE apart one piece at a time; they make no provision for attacking the cybertank’s main body. Here are some suggestions for OGREs with structure points.

Check out how well-armoured the monsters are; that’s the reason the Pansies shoot out an OGRE’s weapons and treads instead.

1.10 OGRE structure points. If desired, attackers may target an OGRE’s main body instead of its weapons or treads. OGREs are extremely well-armoured, with metres of BPC protecting their vulnerable innards. Like treads, the OGRE’s main body is attacked at 1:1 odds. A successful hit inflicts damage equal to the weapon’s attack strength.

An OGRE suffers no detrimental effects from main body damage until 0 SP are reached. At that point, the OGRE is considered destroyed; its internal systems have been breached and completely fried. If using the OGRE Miniatures rules, the OGRE still leaves behind a hulk. Various OGRE designs possess differing SP, as follows:

Mk. VI or Doppelsoldner: 125 SP.

Mk. IV, Mk. V, Huscarl, or Fencer: 100 SP.

Mk. III, Mk. III-B, Legionnaire, or Ninja: 75 SP.

Mk. II: 50 SP.

Mk. I, Pikeman: 30 SP.

Most OGREs have so many SP that it is difficult to obliterate them within a reasonable period of time. When using OGRE structure points, the optional “AP point defense” rule is recommended (repeated here from the Other Rule Variants page):

1.103 AP point defense. An OGRE uses its AP weapons for point defense against incoming attacks, not just to mow down infantry. If all of an OGRE’s antipersonnel units are destroyed, then treat any “D” result to an OGRE component as an “X” instead (except for spillover fire). This gives attackers some reason to take out an OGRE’s AP.

As a variant, allow ram attacks to damage an OGRE’s main body instead of (or perhaps in addition to) treads.

“One thing I find irksome about the background of Ogre is the lack of PE cybertanks before the Fencer, as I feel that they would have made some interim smaller models before jumping into producing a large Ogre variant of their own.”

Throughout the war, the Paneuropeans were always several years behind their Combine counterparts in the field of robotic warfare. After the capture of Sheffield, however, they were able to produce knockoff Combine OGREs; and, later, cybertanks of their own design. Many of those units are detailed on this page.

I use a variant of the standard missile rack rules for Combine OGREs. The “Launch Tubes” of many Paneuropean cybertanks have a different name, but they follow the rules for “official” missile racks (from my Other Rule Variants page):

1.102 Paneuro launch tubes. Related to the Combine Missile Pods, it might be interesting to have Fencers and Dopps keep their ‘pool’ of missiles for all launchers, giving the PE cybertanks a different feel from Combine OGREs. They don’t look like missile racks to me, so I refer to them as “launch tubes”, but follow the same rules as canon missile racks.

This page contains variant Mk. IVs plus some of the Combine’s ‘weirder’ OGREs. I’ve put the Mk. Is separately on The Littlest OGRE page and Paneurope’s forces are collected at Paneuropean Cybertanks.

Note that several of the Combine OGREs feature internal missile systems. Here’s an excerpt from my Other Rule Variants that I like:

1.101 Combine missile pods. Looking at the Mk. IV and Mk. VI miniatures, I would say that Combine internal missiles are not located within the OGRE’s body, but are stored inside the revolver-style launchers themselves. This suggests a variation of the missile rack rules…

To distinguish them from 3.04.2‘s missile racks, let’s call the Combine’s launchers “missile pods” instead (they look more like pods anyways). The ammo for each pod must be kept track of separately. When a pod is destroyed, the remaining missiles in that pod (if any) are also destroyed. The Mk. IV has pods containing 5 missiles each, while the OGRE Ninja and Mk. VI use pods with 4 missiles each.